Blogging from Meet the Candidates Town Hall

Candidates for mayor and city council are participating in a Meet the Candidates Town Hall Wednesday in City Hall. The event is sponsored by the Womens Civic League.

Each candidate was given a three minutes for an opening statement. The candidates for mayor spoke first.

Karla Anderson spoke about her experience serving 14 years on the South Lake Board of Education and 10 years as president. She has been an active volunteer in the organizations and the community. 

"I think it is really important we promote our city," she said. "I think it is real important that our citizens are really involved in the community ... it gives you ownership in the community."

Nate Kaczmarek stated that while he is a young candidate, he likes the old fashioned ways of meeting residents by going door to door. One thing he has heard is "residents uniformly love their city." But he added that they have concerns about their future. If elected mayor, he plans on focusing on growth, fiscal responsibility and private investment. 

Kip Walby, who has served city council for 12 years, is "proud of his record" where he said he has been an "agent of change for St. Clair Shores." Walby highlighted his accomplishments during his tenure which included providing a high level of service without layoffs. Additionally, contracts were negotiated which changing employee health care and pensions along with a pay cut for employees that provides savings to the community today, and into the future. These changes were done while nearly tripling the rainy day fund over the past seven years. 

City council candidates then introduced themselves. Chantel Ticconi could not attend due to a family emergency.

John Burtch, a private practice lawyer, looks to bring his career experience and family life - which includes members who had jobs serving the community - to tackle the hard problems the city faces. 

Henry Castro, who moved into the city from out of state, has become an active volunteer who wants to preserve the sense of community and keep the city safe.

Jack Downey spoke about how the city faces "serious problems" that is coming which needs "intelligent, strong leadership." He added that he would ask the hard questions because "I love this city and want to see it go forward," he added. 

Ron Fredrick, the only incumbent running for council, spoke about the efforts during his tenure to cut the budget while not cutting services. He added that he will continue to support parks and recreation, which is the "personality of the city," which can also help St. Clair Shores grow. He also is a supporter of public safety, who led the effort to pass Proposal 2 for police and fire funding.

Chuck Hall, a life-long resident who has served on a number of boards and commissions, wants to bring his experience to council to keep St. Clair Shores at a status level above surrounding communities.

Randy Rose, who has career in technology and streamlining processes for businesses, wants to make sure the city "evolves into something more efficient, but keeps that small community feel."

Anthony Tiseo, also a life-long resident and active throughout the city, wants to make St. Clair Shores is more friendly to businesses and making it more cost effective and actively recruit new businesses. He also want to preserve the natural beauty of the community. 

Chris Vitale complimented the efforts of the current council to reduce costs and move the parade and fireworks out of the budget, and wants to continue those efforts to ensure unnecessary expenditures are not made. He added that all the work done in the business sector "means nothing" if blight is not addressed in the neighborhoods. 

After introductions, the candidates answered questions from residents and the Womens Civic League which included their vision for the community, thoughts on how they would avoid dipping into the rainy day fund along with their thoughts on parks and recreation and keeping the lakefront parks residents only.

Each of the candidates spoke about their love of the community, commitment to maintaining the way of life in the city and working to keep the beaches open through working to improve the environment. 

One of the more out of the box proposals came from Kaczmarek who proposed the city attract a waterfront aquarium, which would help businesses along the Nautical Mile and draw people to the community.

The majority of the candidates spoke about being fiscally conservative and not using "rainy day" as a last resort.

All the candidates stated their commitment to preserving resident-only status of the lakefront parks. While most stated that they are in favor of continuing the Tax Increment Finance Authority for the Nautical Mile, Vitale and Hall were vocally against continuing TIFA.

When the question came about bringing new businesses to the Shores, candidates spoke of having trolleys running through the business district by Castro; Walby proposed getting the community development personnel out of the office and to sell the city and Downey discussed similar efforts  for the neighborhoods which will help existing business owners.

Vitale challenged Kaczmarek's idea for an aquarium, which he countered that having a destination attraction will bring national retailers to the city, and the waterfront, as opposed to cities further off the shore. 

When the question was raised about what members of council can do regarding water quality, many echoed that the elected officials need be advocates and represent the city to county, state and federal officials to clean the lake and hold big business responsible for their dumping.

"The good news its poop," said Vitale, regarding the reason for the closing of the beaches as opposed to chemical contamination of the beaches.

All of the candidates stated they would not support changing retiree pensions for those who are retired. 

Regarding blight and infrastructure, the candidates spoke about the need to go after grants and funds for infrastructure while fighting blight. While the city fights blight, a handful of candidates spoke about working with residents to find the cause of the blight if there was extenuating circumstances.

Candidates offered their closing statements, repeating their platforms, experience and love of the community.